Floatation garment

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to garments which incorporate insulation against wind and inclement weather and which are sufficiently buoyant to serve as a life jacket when worn in the water. The embodiment selected for illustration in the drawing includes a coat of insulation material including front and rear sections formed of overlying layers of polyvinyl chloride sheet material. The several layers extend from the upper margins of the front and back sections at the shoulder downwardly toward the waist of the garment. Some of the layers are shorter than others whereby the finished garment is more buoyant at the upper part of its front section than it is at the lower part of its front section and so that the upper part of the front section is more buoyant than the back section. The garment shown includes sleeves the lower portions of which are made of a nonbuoyant insulating material so that the arms of a wearer will be caused to float.

United States Patent 72] Inventor George H. Brauer Downey, Calif. [21Appl. No. 817,674 [22] Filed Apr. 21, 1969 [45] Patented Apr. 27, 1971[73] Assignee The Empress Corporation Los Angeles, Calif.

[54] FLOATATION GARMENT 5 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 9/341 [51] Int. Cl B63c 9/10 [50] Field of Search 9/341,342, 340, 329, 330, 311

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,042,327 11/1912 Costanzo9/340(X) 1,518,509 12/1924 Han 9/341(X) 2,629,118 2/1953 Frieder et a1.9/342(X) 3,199,128 8/1965 Nojd 9/341(X) 3,266,069 8/ 1966 O'LinkABSTRACT: This invention relates to garments which incorporateinsulation against wind and inclement weather and which are sufficientlybuoyant to serve as a life jacket when worn in the water. The embodimentselected for illustration in the drawing includes a coat of insulationmaterial including front and rear sections formed of overlying layers ofpolyvinyl chloride sheet material. The several layers extend from theupper margins of the front and back sections at the shoulder downwardlytoward the waist of the garment. Some of the layers are shorter thanothers whereby the finished garment is more buoyant at the upper part ofits front section than it is at the lower part of its front section andso that the upper part of the front section is more buoyant than theback section. The garment shown includes sleeves the lower portions ofwhich are made of a nonbuoyant insulating material so that the arms of awearer will be caused to float.

PATENTEU mm 1971 3; 576 042 22 INVENTOR.

$50 946 HI Benz/2 ML Array/vans FLOATATION GARMENT This inventionrelates to improvements in flotation garments. It relates particularlyto garments which include an insulating coat or jacket as an element oftheir structure and which coat or jacket is also buoyant in substantialdegree whereby it may serve as a flotation garment.

An object of the invention is to provide a garment capable of protectingthe wearer against the elements and which will serve as a flotationstructure when its wearer is in the water. Thus, an object of theinvention is to provide a garment which in addition to serving thefunction of a conventional outdoor protective garment such as a coat ora jacket or a coverall, will serve also as a life jacket. Another objectof the invention is to provide a flotation garment or life jacket whichtends to support the wearer in a safe position in the water by tendingto cause him to float face upwardly with the upper part of his bodyhigher in the water than the lower portion of his body.

In general, that a garment worn primarily for protection against theweather will float and will support its wearer in the water is a safetyfeature useful in an emergency which may never arise. More often theprimary function of the garment is to protect the wearer against coldand inclement weather. Advantageously, the feature that the garment willserve as a flotation device will not diminish the garments usefulnessfor this more frequent purpose. Accordingly, an object of the inventionis to provide a flotation garment which is as comfortable andserviceable and as attractive in appearance as any outdoor garment whenout of water. A related object of the invention is to provide a garmentwhich is comfortable to wear and will not restrict the wearers movementsunduly so that wearing it is not objectionable and which, at the sametime, provides the precautionary safety of a life jacket.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention are realized, atleast in part, by the provision of a garment comprising back and frontsections joined to form a coat; each of those sections being formed by aflexible, buoyant, insulating material; the material of the frontsection being more buoyant at the upper front region than at the lowerfront region and being more buoyant at the front section than at theback section.

In the drawings:

FIG. I is an isometric view of a coat or jacket embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of the floating coat garment containedwithin the completely assembled garment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the floating coat portion of thecompleted garment taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing one-half of the front section,together with an upper arm section, of the floating coat, taken on line4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the rear of the coat garment takenon line 5-5 of FIG. 3 and showing the back section, the two upper armsections, and the two lower arm sections of the floating coat;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the lower part of one of the sleevesof the garment of FIGS. 2 and 3, taken on lines 6-6 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a view in elevation of a fragment of the arm structure of thegarment taken on line 77 of FIG. 2 and showing the juncture, at theinner side of the sleeve, between the upper and lower portion of thesleeve.

The invention is capable of embodiment in forms that have the appearanceof conventional garments of a variety of kinds. It may be embodied in ajump suit or coveralls and it may be embodied in a coat or jacket.Moreover, it may be embodied in a pullover garment. The garment in FIG.I is a short coat or jacket of conventional external appearance whichopens and closes at its front. It is provided with an inner lining whichalso looks conventional. Between the inner lining and the externalcovering this jacket is provided with an insulating material whichserves effectively in protecting the wearer against the elements. Whenworn in the water, this coat also serves as a life jacket or flotationgarment.

FIG. 2 illustrates the insulation and flotation portion of the garmentwhich is itself a jacket or coat. The embodiment selected forillustration in FIG. 2 incorporates sleeves which advantageously areincluded but are not essential to successful practice of the inventionin its broader concept. The garment of FIG. 2 could be provided with apant portion as for example when it is incorporated in a jump suit.Whatever its complete form, the insulating garment or the insulatingportion of the completed garment includes a vest section in that it hasa rear section and a front section designed to encircle the upper bodyof the wearer. Further, at least the front section is made of aflotation material.

In preferred form, both the front and the back sections are formed offlotation material and in this embodiment they are. The back section isdesignated by the reference numeral 10; the front section is generallydesignated by the reference numeral 12. In this embodiment the frontsection is divided into two halves, the half at the wearers right inFIG. 2 is designated by the reference numeral 14 and the half at thewearers left is designated by the reference numeral 16. The front andrear sections are joined together at their respective side edges and attheir upper edges. Portions of the back and front are cut away to formneck and arm openings. An upper arm sleeve, that is the shoulder portionof a sleeve, is secured to the front and back sections at the margins ofthe arm opening. The right sleeve is designated 18 and the left sleeveis designated 20. In the preferred embodiment the sleeves also includelower portions of a length to extend to the wrist of a wearer. Thisembodiment includes such lower sleeve portions, the left one of which isdesignated 22 and the right is designated 24.

The garment of FIG. 2 extends to the shoulders of the wearer at itsupper end and at its lower end extends toward the waist of the wearer.It may extend beyond but that portion which is necessary to successfulpractice of the invention need cover only the upper portion of thewearer's body. That is, in the invention the insulating garment needcomprise only a vest or jacket or coat whatever the form of the finishedgarment in which it is incorporated. The front section of the flotationgarment must be more buoyant than the rear section so that one wearingthe jacket in the water will tend to float face up. Further, the upperportion of the front section must be more buoyant than the lower portionof the front section. The rear section need not be buoyant.Advantageously, it is. Furthermore, in the preferred form of theinvention the upper portion of the rear section is more buoyant than thelower portion of the rear section. The upper sleeve sections need not beincluded. If they are included they may be either buoyant or nonbuoyantalthough in preferred form they are buoyant. The lower sleeves need notbe included. If they are included they are made nonbuoyant. A pantsection need not be included but if it is, it is made nonbuoyant.

The flotation garment is made buoyant by forming it of a material whichweighs less than water and which will not be permeated by water.Increased buoyancy is accomplished by forming the garment either with amore buoyant material in those places where it is to be more buoyant orby incorporating greater volume of the selected buoyant material atthose areas of the garment which are to be more buoyant. This lattermeans of providing increased buoyancy is preferred and in the embodimentillustrated in the drawings, increased buoyancy is provided by increasedthickness of buoyant material in those areas where greater buoyancy isrequired. In the selected embodiment, the flotation garment is formed oflayers of a buoyant material. Increased buoyancy in selected areas isprovided by multiplying the number of layers used to form the garment inthose areas. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, three layers are incorporatedin the front section of the garment and two layers are incorporated inthe rear section of the garment. The several layers are attached one tothe other in a way that insures that the garment will retain its shapeand so that its several parts will tend to return to designed shape andrelative position when the garment is not worn. Nonetheless, the severallayers are free to move laterally relative to one another so that thewearer may enjoy maximum freedom of movement. it has been discoveredthat the use of overlying layers of insulating material results in agarment far more comfortable to the wearer than a gannent formed with asimilar but single, thickness of material.

In preferred form the layers are joined at their upper margins and attheir side margins only. In particular, they are not joined at the lowermargin of any layer and advantageously they are not joined at portionsof the sheet away from their margins. This construction facilitatesdraining of any water that finds its way between the layers and itprovides maximum freedom for successive layers to move relative to oneanother. Nonetheless, some bonding at other points is permitted when itaids the manufacturing process.

lt has been found preferable that the shorter ones of the severaloverlying layers of insulating material be arranged at the inside of thecompleted flotation garment. That this embodiment has that constructionis best illustrated in FIG. 3 where the front section 14 is shown tocomprise a long outer panel 26, a short inner panel 23, with the panel3! of intermediate length between them. The back section comprises along outer layer 32 and one short upper inner layer 34. The degree ofbuoyancy is variable by using materials of different density and byusing different thickness of materials having the same density. in thisembodiment all of the layers are made of the same material. All of thelayers 26, 28 and 30 of the front section have the same thickness. Theupper inner rear layer 34 has like thickness but the outer rear layer 32is made of a layer which is less thick than the others.

While various flotation materials are available and are satisfactory foruse in practicing the invention, the best material currently availableis polyvinyl chloride. Formed as a plastic foam, this material iscellular and the cells are closed with a gas entrapped within them. Thisquality makes the material buoyant, lightweight and a poor conductor ofheat to the end that a garment incorporating it is lightweight, warm andbuoyant. Moreover, polyvinyl chloride sheets are flexible andcompressible having slight, but not excessive, resiliency. Because ofthese attributes garments formed of this material can be made verycomfortable. A material having similar characteristics, except that itscells are not closed, is polyurethane. Polyurethane will becomesaturated with the water in which it is immersed and will not float. Inother respects, its characteristics are similar to the polyvinylchloride. Those portions of the flotation garment which are to benonbuoyant are advantageously formed of sheets of polyurethane. Thesetwo materials complement one another in the sense that they are readilybonded to one another using contact adhesives. Several layers of thesematerials may be bonded to one another by a thin layer of neoprenecontact adhesive confined to a narrow stripe adjacent their margins.Moreover, a neoprene contact adhesive can be used to butt bond layers ofpolyvinyl chloride and polyurethane in edge-toedge fashion so thatthickened seams are avoided along the lines upon which the severalsections of the garment are attached to one another.

H68. 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views taken through the bond linebetween the front and rear sections, 12 and 10, of the garment. FIG. 4shows the wearer's right half of the front section. The three layers 26,28 and 30 all extend to the upper margin of the section which endssubstantially at the midline I of the wearer's shoulder in thisembodiment. The three layers are bonded one to the other at that pointand along the line 50 where they are also butt bonded to the innermargin of the upper sleeve section 18. The lower sleeve section 22 isbonded to the upper sleeve section 18 along the butt bond line 52. Atthe side the several layers are bonded to one another to the extent thatthey are coextensive. These bond lines are designated by the referencenumeral 54. In this embodiment the lower edges of the layers 28 and 30are parallel with the lower edge of the layer 26. This feature isadvantageous although not essential. These several layers are joined toone another at their front edges along the centerline 56 to the extentthat they are coextensive.

The rear half of the flotation garment is shown in FIG. 5. Whereas, theseveral layers of the front section all extend well below the level ofthe wearers armpit, it is advantageous that the buoyancy of the backsection be relatively limited except at the region of the back above thearmpits. Accordingly, while the back section 32 is as long as the outerfront section 26, the inner rear section 34 extends only to the armpits.Also, the upper sleeve sections 18 and 20 end approximately at thearmpit because they are made of buoyant material in this embodiment.They are buoyant to assist in keeping the upper part of the wearers bodyhigh in the water. It is advantageous that his arm not float so thelower part of the sleeves, lower sleeve 22 and lower sleeve 24, are madeof a nonfloating material. in this case they are made of polyurethane.The shape of the lower sleeves is shown in H6. 6 which is a crosssection taken on line 6-6 of FIG. 2. FIG. 7 illustrates the underside ofthe bond line 70 between the upper sleeve 20 and the lower sleeve 24.The arrangement shown permits a reduction in sleeve diameter along thelength of the upper sleeve section and serves to illustrate how theconstruction may be simplified by the combination of polyvinyl chlorideand polyurethane in the two sleeve sections.

Returning to FIG. 5, the lower margin 72 of the layer 34 is parallelwith the lower margin of the layer 32 which is advantageous but notessential. As in the case of the front sections, the lower margin 72 ofsheet 34 is not bonded or cemented to the sheet 32. The two sheets arecemented together only along a narrow strip adjacent their common uppermargins at the bond line 74 and along the bond lines 76 and 78 wherethey are joined in a butt bond to the upper sleeve sections.

In preferred form the flotation garment or jacket is provided with anouter covering material not only to enhance its appearance but to add tothe function of the insulation and flotation portion of the completedgarment. The .outer covering advantageously is lightweight and waterrepellent. Moreover, a completed garment advantageously includes alining of lightweight and water repellent material. In the preferredembodiment these coverings and lining materials comprise a nylon treatedwith a water repellent material. Also, the finished garment isadvantageously provided with means, such as a collar or hood which canbe made close fitting around the wearer to minimize movement of waterthrough the neck portion of the garment in the water. In preferred formthat means is formed of a nonbuoyant material. Thus, in the embodimentillustrated in HO. 1, the collar section 80 is nonbuoyant. In thegarment there illustrated the outer covering material 82 is made ofnylon cloth formed with an Oxford weave coated with a water repellentmaterial. The inner liner 84 is formed of a similar material.

Although i have shown and described certain specific embodimetits of myinvention, 1 am fully aware that many modifications thereof arepossible. My invention, therefore, is not to be restricted exceptinsofar as is necessitated by the prior art and by the spirit of theappended claims.

lclaim:

l. A floating garment comprising back and front sections joined to forma coat, each of said sections being formed of a flexible and buoyantmaterial;

the material of said front section being more buoyant at upper frontthan at lower front and said from section being more buoyant at upperfront than said back section, the back section being more buoyant atupper back than at lower back;

a pair of sleeves, at least the lower portions of which comprisenonbuoyant material and the upper portions of which comprise nonbuoyantmaterial and the upper portions of which are buoyant in a degree nogreater than said lower back; and

said front and back sections are formed of polyvinyl chloride plasticand said sleeves are formed of polyurethane material.

2. A floating garment comprising back and front sections joined to forma coat, each of said sections being formed of flexible and buoyantmaterial;

the material of said front section being more buoyant at upper frontthan at lower front and said front section being more buoyant at upperfront than said back section;

the material of said back section being more buoyant at upper back thanat lower back;

said front section comprising three overlying layers of buoyant sheetmaterial, each layer extending downward from the upper margin of saidfront section; and

one layer ending above, and another layer ending below, the

waist region of the garment.

3. The invention defined in claim 2, in which said back sectioncomprises overlying layers of buoyant sheet material each layerextending to the region of the upper margin of the back section and onelayer extending to a point substantially below the lower margin ofanother.

4. The invention defined in claim 3 in which the inner layer of thefront section is shorter than the intermediate layer and in which theouter layer of the front section is longer than the intermediate layer.

5. A floating garment comprising back and front sections joined to forma coat, each of said sections being fonned of flexible and buoyantmaterial;

the material of said front section being more buoyant at upper frontthan at lower front and saidfront section being more buoyant at upperfront than said back section;

the material of said back section being more buoyant at upper back thanat lower back;

said front section comprising overlying layers of buoyant sheetmaterial, each layer extending downwardly from the upper margin of saidfront section and one layer extending to a level substantially below thelevel of another; and

means for joining the layers of the front section to one another inoverlying relation and the layer of the back section to one another inoverlying relation while permitting drainage of fluid from between theoverlying layers in a direction towards their lower margins.

1. A floating garment comprising back and front sections joined to forma coat, each of said sections being formed of a flexible and buoyantmaterial; the material of said front section being more buoyant at upperfront than at lower front and said front section being more buoyant atupper front than said back section, the back section being more buoyantat upper back than at lower back; a pair of sleeves, at least the lowerportions of which comprise nonbuoyant material and the upper portions ofwhich comprise nonbuoyant material and the upper portions of which arebuoyant in a degree no greater than said lower back; and said front andback sections are formed of polyvinyl chloride plastic and said sleevesare formed of polyurethane material.
 2. A floating garment comprisingback and front sections joined to form a coat, each of said sectionsbeing formed of flexible and buoyant material; the material of saidfront section being more buoyant at upper front than at lower front andsaid front section being more buoyant at upper front than said backsection; the material of said back section being more buoyant at upperback than at lower back; said front section comprising three overlyinglayers of buoyant sheet material, each layer extending downward from theupper margin of said front section; and one layer ending above, andanother layer ending below, the waist region of the garment.
 3. Theinvention defined in claim 2, in which said back section comprisesoverlying layers of buoyant sheet material each layer extending to theregion of the upper margin of the back section and one layer extendingto a point substantially below the lower margin of another.
 4. Theinvention defined in claim 3 in which the inner layer of the frontsection is shorter than the intermediate layer and in which the outerlayer of the front section is longer than the intermediate layer.
 5. Afloating garment comprising back and front sections joined to form acoat, each of said sections being formed of flexible and buoyantmaterial; the material of said front section being more buoyant at upperfront than at lower front and said front section being more buoyant atupper front than said back section; the material of said bacK sectionbeing more buoyant at upper back than at lower back; said front sectioncomprising overlying layers of buoyant sheet material, each layerextending downwardly from the upper margin of said front section and onelayer extending to a level substantially below the level of another; andmeans for joining the layers of the front section to one another inoverlying relation and the layer of the back section to one another inoverlying relation while permitting drainage of fluid from between theoverlying layers in a direction towards their lower margins.